With ARC tunnel scrapped, NJ Transit officials wonder what to do with $26.3 million worth of North Bergen property

Reena Rose Sibayan/The Jersey JournalPoliticians held press conference at the entrance to the ARC (Access to the Region's Core) Tunnel Construction site in North Bergen on Oct. 19 to support the railway tunnel project. Gov. Chris Christie officially killed the plan last week.

In the aftermath of Gov. Chris Christie officially scrapping the Access to the Region's Core tunnel project, New Jersey Transit officials are scratching their heads over what to do with $26.3 million worth of property the agency purchased in North Bergen to create a tunnel entrance.

As part of what was the largest infrastructure project in the nation, the agency purchased five properties on Tonnelle Avenue between 10th Street and Paterson Plank Road. The land had housed a McDonald's, some warehouses, and a self-storage facility.

Ground was broken in North Bergen on the tunnel in June 2009 and the property was to be transformed into a tunnel entrance with railroad tracks and a utility building.

But with those plans derailed, the agency will now have to spend more to undo the construction that did take place and figure out what to do with the land, according NJ Transit spokesman Paul Wyckoff.

"Where we started digging the underpass, we will fill the excavated portions back in and redo the roadway surface," Wyckoff said, adding that it would take a few months to complete.

Wyckoff could not comment on the projected cost of restoring the property to its original state, but noted that some of the tunnel infrastructure, such as the support beams under the Tonnelle Avenue overpass workers had begun to construct would be left intact.

In addition, the storage buildings on the land will still be demolished as planned. But as for the future of the land, no decision has been made, he said."Based on the real estate professionals' evaluations, the land could be sold or retained for use by NJ Transit," he said.

Assemblyman Vincent Prieto, D-Secaucus, who opposed Gov. Christie's decision to cancel the tunnel, said that NJ Transit would probably get less than what they paid for the land.

"There's nothing they (NJ Transit) can really do with the land except to undo what they did, and there's a cost associated with that too," Prieto said. "So the $600 million question is, what do you do with it?"

U.S. Rep. Albio Sires, D-West New York, believes that NJ Transit should not make a hasty decision.

"At this moment, do nothing with the land until everything has been analyzed given the current situation," he urged.

Christie made a final decision to kill the ARC tunnel last week, citing the federal government's unwillingness to pay for cost overruns. The original estimate for the project was $8.7 billion. But federal officials have said that the final cost could range from $9.8 billion to $12.7 billion.

(This story has been updated to correct the total purchase price of those properties.)